Young runners learning the ‘big picture’: College Football 2013

Thursday

Aug 29, 2013 at 12:48 AM

It’s a young running back group this year for the University of Alabama, with the veteran of the group a wise old sophomore.Second-year back T.J. Yeldon has a quartet of freshman runners behind him while Kenyan Drake has a year’s experience, Jalston Fowler splits time between H-back and tailback and Dee Hart returns from a knee injury. It would be an accomplishment for any of the freshman backs to equal what Yeldon did in his first season as the backup to Eddie Lacy when he set a school standard for rookie runners with 1,108 rushing yards and tied a school record for freshman running touchdowns with 12.

By Aaron SuttlesSports Writer

It’s a young running back group this year for the University of Alabama, with the veteran of the group a wise old sophomore.Second-year back T.J. Yeldon has a quartet of freshman runners behind him while Kenyan Drake has a year’s experience, Jalston Fowler splits time between H-back and tailback and Dee Hart returns from a knee injury. It would be an accomplishment for any of the freshman backs to equal what Yeldon did in his first season as the backup to Eddie Lacy when he set a school standard for rookie runners with 1,108 rushing yards and tied a school record for freshman running touchdowns with 12.Replacing Lacy will be a tricky feat, too, but the raw talent is there, just inexperienced.“The running back position, obviously, we’re in a situation where we’ve got a lot of young players who just came in and they’re learning the system,” UA offensive coordinator Doug Nussmeier said.Those young backs are Derrick Henry (6-foot-3, 238 pounds), Altee Tenpenny (6-0, 207 pounds), Tyren Jones (5-9, 215 pounds) and Alvin Kamara (5-10, 195 pounds). “So that’s the biggest thing is to teach them once again the big picture — how you get lined up, what kind of stance, what kind of footwork,” Nussmeier said. “Everybody focuses on the running back position about what the player does with the ball in their hands. There’s so much more to it. You start talking about protection-type things. What we see from our defense every day, the complexity of blitzes and those type of things, it’s very important that those guys grow in that area. “Very, very pleased with the depth that we have there, really good players. Jalston Fowler, you know he missed most of last season. Dee Hart coming back off of injury. Kenyan Drake returning. And then we talked about Derrick and the young guys that are coming in. So we’ve got a lot of depth there. Really good to have competition at any position. We’re excited about what those guys will do in the next couple of weeks moving forward.”As the default leader of the group, Yeldon sets a standard by his play on the field. He’s embraced the challenge.“Most of them are just leaning on me, seeing what I do out there,” Yeldon said. “It’s my job to pick them up when they’re having a bad day, because they’re not going to have a good day every day. And just helping them with the plays and blocking protections. Every guy is different. They have different running abilities. All of them are looking pretty good.”One of the youngsters will need to develop into a dependable back to give UA the two-running back attack it’s had under coach Nick Saban.“I’m just hoping to see if Coach can find a guy that can run behind me like Eddie did, and like I did for Eddie,” Yeldon said. “I’m looking for what or who else can — one, two, three or whoever else out there can run the ball.”